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Google brought me to this question:

Is there a way to identify the busy (CPU-consuming) tab in Firefox?

But that question is marked as a duplicate of this one:

How to find out which firefox tab is using most CPU or memory?

The problem is that the second question already has an accepted answer, but that answer is now out of date (Firefox already does what the suggested extension offers, and the extension is no longer compatible, although alternatives are available). Incidentally the older question has far fewer upvotes and views than the closed question.

I am wondering if there could have been a better way to handle this.

Personally I feel the older question was a bit broad (asking about CPU and memory together). And I feel uncomfortable that the answer was accepted. There really is no single "right" answer to this question We will hopefully see more alternative solutions appearing in the coming years.

My suggestion would be to have kept the 2014 question open, but distinguish it from the older question by editing it to make it specifically about Firefox >30.

It seems odd that Google brings users to the closed question rather than the original. But I think Google is right: it has more useful information on it!

If you agree that these two questions look a bit messy now, do you think anything can be done to make up-to-date information easily available to users?

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  • 1
    So the existing question has an accepted answer. That should not stop anyone from submitting a new answer, which specifically indicates this feature was added after Firefox 30, provided the answer itself actually merits being submitted. Both questions are asking for ways to determine what is consuming both memory and CPU resources within a tab. I don't personally see the problem.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Dec 1, 2015 at 16:39
  • 8
    An answer going out of date is a problem for both questions. It's compounded by both questions being old, so there is not likely to be a new answer unless somebody stumbles across one or the other and submits a new answer. Consolidating information is important, but it should take a back seat to attracting current answers. My suggestion would be to write a new question (with links to the old ones), and distinguish, it as you suggest, by making it specific to FF>30. After it gets current answers, we can make it a dupe of one of the old ones.
    – fixer1234
    Commented Dec 1, 2015 at 19:44
  • @fixer1234 there's a bounty reason for that: " Current answers are outdated, The current answer(s) are out-of-date and require revision given recent changes."
    – Braiam
    Commented Dec 3, 2015 at 18:00
  • @Braiam: True, but why should people put up a bounty when answers can be attracted for free? Bounties are a tool that can be voluntarily used if someone thinks it worth it, it shouldn't be a requirement.
    – fixer1234
    Commented Dec 3, 2015 at 18:06
  • @fixer1234 that is against of the spirit of "all the information, one place". The bounties were designed precisely to counter obsolescence. Also read meta.stackexchange.com/a/11706/213575
    – Braiam
    Commented Dec 3, 2015 at 18:19
  • 1
    @fixer1234 you are missing the whole point of bounties. How can bounties not attract "good and current answers"?
    – Braiam
    Commented Dec 3, 2015 at 18:36
  • 3
    @Braiam: You're correct. No answers equals no work for moderators or reviewers, which is the goal of the site. :-)
    – fixer1234
    Commented Dec 3, 2015 at 19:20
  • 1
    @fixer This is what bounties are for. If you don't want to bounty the outdated question or answer it yourself, that's just too bad. You aren't entitled to quality up-to-date answers if you can't even be bothered to spend a bit of rep for the site.
    – bjb568
    Commented Dec 3, 2015 at 22:25
  • 2
    @bjb568: That's a tortured interpretation of both the intent of bounties and my comments. True, that's what bounties are for, but they are not a requirement and were never intended as a hurdle to answers.
    – fixer1234
    Commented Dec 3, 2015 at 23:01
  • 1
    @fixer They're not a requirement just like having good answers aren't a requirement. Bounties are the opposite of hurdles to answers.
    – bjb568
    Commented Dec 3, 2015 at 23:14
  • 2
    @bjb568: 1) If people are not allowed to post a new question, they can only post a bounty on an existing question, then it is a requirement. 2) Yes, bounties are the opposite of hurdles. However, the requirement for a bounty or no new answers is a hurdle to new answers.
    – fixer1234
    Commented Dec 4, 2015 at 1:36
  • 1
    @fixer Bounties are not required for answers, you can go try to answer the question now, it'll work, you'll see.
    – bjb568
    Commented Dec 4, 2015 at 1:41
  • 1
    @bjb568: The issue being discussed is attracting new answers to old questions. Two methods are being discussed: posting a new question or posting a bounty on the old one. Nobody is arguing about the benefits of someone choosing to post a bounty. The issue is whether a new questiion should be allowed in order to attract answers without the need for a bounty. For the majority of site users, who don't have the rep to post a bounty, I'm suggesting that posting a new question is an acceptable alternative, and it can be made a dupe, if appropriate, after it has served its purpose.
    – fixer1234
    Commented Dec 4, 2015 at 3:13
  • 1
    @fixer That's simply abuse of the dup system. While "the majority of site users" may not be able to create bounties, in cases where it's warranted there's almost always users with at least 75 rep (less than the association bonus!) that can add the bounty. Even without that, you can easily find somebody with rep via chat. So a new question that's predestined to be closed is neither beneficial nor right nor necessary. There's a system specifically to made for this purpose, so we should use it.
    – bjb568
    Commented Dec 4, 2015 at 4:33
  • 2
    I must say, I can't support the idea of appending a new answer to a question that is not specific to it, both in topic and point-in-time. When I search for answers and hit SE sites results, I quickly disregard questions that do not appear to describe a situation related to the problem I am trying to solve, and for version specific stuff, I exclude results from years prior to the version in question. Combined with not being able to trust the accepted answer, and the fact that newer answers will have fewer votes, such an approach just seems to bury pertinent info, bounty or no.
    – Frank Thomas
    Commented Dec 11, 2015 at 22:11

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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If the new question showed a decent research effort, there would be no reason to close it as a duplicate. For example

I need an answer for a recent Firefox version (I have Firefox 42). I saw this question, but the answer provided there suggests installing an addon which is not compatible with Firefox 42.

-1

Your question was asked before, but the information is outdated? There's a bounty reason for that:

Current answers are outdated

The current answer(s) are out-of-date and require revision given recent changes.

You have the tools available to fix the situation.

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  • Correct me if I am wrong but if a question is closed due to being a duplicate you can't put a bounty on it for someone to answer. So the OP's issues still stand.
    – Matthew Verstraete
    Commented Dec 7, 2015 at 19:33
  • @MatthewVerstraete what? You can put a bounty on any question so long is at least 2 days old and no other active bounty.
    – Braiam
    Commented Dec 7, 2015 at 22:39
  • But once a question is closed you can not add more answers to it so how would a bounty get claimed? Does putting a bounty on a question automatically reopen it?
    – Matthew Verstraete
    Commented Dec 8, 2015 at 2:38
  • 1
    @MatthewVerstraete the bounty would be on the open duplicate target, not on the closed one...
    – Braiam
    Commented Dec 8, 2015 at 3:12
  • Sorry, your answer made it seem to me that you mean to put the bounty on the closed question.
    – Matthew Verstraete
    Commented Dec 8, 2015 at 13:13
  • @MatthewVerstraete "Your question was asked before, but the information is outdated?" means that you asked a question, was closed as duplicated of another already answered, but those answers are "outdated". I don't think I can write that without being too verbose.
    – Braiam
    Commented Dec 9, 2015 at 0:00

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